The Germans created a ghetto in December 1941, where they began to bring Jews from other places - Bessarabia, Ukraine and Romania. From the very beginning, severe beatings and reprisals against Jews began there. The Baltic ghetto served as a temporary refuge for prisoners before they were transferred to concentration camps. Only those few who remained in the ghetto and did not go to the death camps were given a chance to survive in these conditions. According to some reports, at first there were about 3,800 people in the ghetto, of which only 1,500 were local Jews, the rest were driven from other places.

All Jews in the ghetto were given special certificates, which were personally signed by the governor of Transnistria. This was the name of the administrative territory between the Dniester and the Southern Bug, created from several occupied regions of Ukraine and part of Moldova, transferred by the Germans under the control of Romania. It was written in the document that if the Jew who presented it is outside the territory of the ghetto, he is considered a spy and is subject to execution.
Prisoners of the Balta ghetto experienced physical abuse and other difficulties - hunger, poor sanitation, hard work. Many died of starvation and disease, especially those who were deported from Bessarabia.
The able-bodied prisoners of the ghetto were sent to various jobs outside the city and even to other areas. Many went to the disposal of the German organization Todt, which cost military installations, roads and railways in the occupied territories.
Mass executions in the ghetto began in December 1943, when 83 Jews were killed. But the Nazis were especially atrocious in March 1944: literally two days before their flight from the city, they shot 300 and burned about 60 prisoners.
Though, despite the most difficult conditions that prevailed in the ghetto and the constant threats of death, most of its prisoners survived - on the day the city was liberated, there were just over 2,800 people left. It is worth noting that in many respects this became possible due to the assistance of the Queen of Romania, Elizabeth, who was later recognized as the “righteous among the world.”
A memorial sign to the victims of the Balta ghetto was installed in the early 1990s, in the square down the street, where it was located during the war years. And in 2015, thanks to the efforts of the descendants of the killed and burned prisoners, a commemorative memorial of two granite steles was erected.